Supreme Court finally limits dog searches

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police cannot bring drug-sniffing police dogs onto a suspect’s property to look for evidence without first getting a warrant for a search, a decision which may limit how investigators use dogs’ sensitive noses to search out drugs, explosives and other items hidden from human sight, sound and smell.

The high court split 5-4 on the decision to uphold the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling throwing out evidence seized in the search of Joelis Jardines’ Miami-area house. That search was based on an alert by Franky the drug dog from outside the closed front door.

Justice Antonin Scalia said a person has the Fourth Amendment right to be free from the government’s gaze inside their home and in the area surrounding it, which is called the curtilage.

“The police cannot, without a warrant based on probable cause, hang around on the lawn or in the side garden, trawling for evidence and perhaps peering into the windows of the home,” Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority. “And the officers here had all four of their feet and all four of their companion’s, planted firmly on that curtilage — the front porch is the classic example of an area intimately associated with the life of the home.”

He was joined in his opinion by Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

I had two rookies come to my door when I lived in Dago. Seems someone reported a “woman screaming.” I chuckled, and invited them in. We walked down the hallway and turned left into the kids room. I pointed at the cages and said, “There’s your screaming woman.” Four questioning Cockatoo eyes were locked on the rookies. They didn’t think it was the source of the scream. I told one rookie, “Draw your gun quickly,” which he did.

Seeing that, Skipper, my oldest emitted a blood curdling scream that sent the two cops back into the living room. We had a good laugh over it and I assured them that I actively try to keep them quiet. They left smiling.